A Healthier Earth (part of the Pure Data Centres Group) has appointed Aberdeen-based engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning specialists PD&MS Group, as its system designer for their Wootton Bassett BIOCHAR project.
The project will be led by the PD&MS’ in-house low carbon business; Synergie Environ Ltd. The project is an innovative new process to convert waste into a carbon-sequestering biochar product. Once completed, it will be the largest biochar production facility in the UK.
This project will treat waste material through a pyrolysis system that will separate the carbon into a biochar product as well as generating renewable electricity and heat.
The project will take the waste and convert it to 9,000 tonnes of biochar for use, per year, which equates to a saving of over 17,000 tonnes per annum CO2e.
Jérôme Bletterie, Technical Delivery Manager for A Healthier Earth, said: “Our ambition is to become the world’s largest converter of waste into an internationally recognised and certified biochar grade. By doing this we will significantly reduce the environmental impact of disposing of oversize to landfill as well as producing a fully recycled biochar product that contributes to sustainable long-term carbon removal.”
Gavin Ramsey, Sector Director for Synergie Environ added: “Synergie Environ and PD&MS Group are delighted to be working with A Healthier Earth on this visionary project. As a business we are dedicated to pursuing the delivery of solutions that achieve long-term reductions in carbon emissions and that help businesses reduce their waste and energy costs. This project represents an ideal example of this.”
The facility is expected to be operational, with full-scale biochar production, from 2025.
Synergie Environ recently won the Carbon Reduction Project award at the 2024 National Sustainability Awards for their innovative work at an anaerobic digestion plant in Northumberland, converting waste solvents to low gas.